Thiepval Memorial – The Somme, France

Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of The Somme

Thiepval was one of the main theatres of the Battle of the Somme, whose casualties were enormous. In 1932, the Memorial was inaugurated to commemorate the loss of more than 73,367 fighters missing British, Irish and South African soldiers who fell in the battle and who have no known grave. It is now the largest British war memorial in the world and more than 160,000 visitors to the Somme battlefields come here every year, many to pay their respects to relatives whose names are inscribed on the pillars of the great arch.






The Somme Memorial, erected in 1932 by the British government, is dedicated to the 73,367 missing British, Irish and South African soldiers who fell between July 1915 and March 1918, and have no known grave. Their names are engraved on the 16 pillars that form the basis of the building arch, 45 meters high. This is the most important monument in France designed by the architect Sir Edwin Lutyens. This "Memorial to the Missing" is a place of pilgrimage for many.




The Battle of the Somme, and especially its calamitous opening day, has come to be regarded by many as symbolic of the wastefulness and tragedy of British First World combat experience. By evening it gradually became apparent that the day had been a disaster for the British Army. The 1st July 1916 witnessed extraordinary gallantry, immeasurable suffering and an unprecedented number of casualties, estimated at over 50,000 dead and wounded for British Forces alone. The British failure to breach the German lines on 1 July 1916 inevitably led to the strategy of attrition. A vital aspect of this change in the nature of waging war the pursuit of victory by means of the deliberate trading of losses. Beginning in the height of summer, Allied offensive operations on the Somme were brought to an end just over four and half months later by adverse weather conditions: the autumn rains and early winter sleet and snow having turned the battlefield into a barely navigable morass. Attempts merely to exist in such conditions became almost intolerable physical ordeals. The fighting had led to no significant breakthrough for the Allied forces: the territorial results of over four months of relentless assaults on German defence lines had yielded a meagre harvest of gains: a strip, approximately twenty miles wide by six miles deep, was wrested from German possession and this at an enormous cost in casualties.




By the 18th November 1916 British and Commonwealth forces were calculated to have lost 419,654 (dead, wounded and missing); French losses amounted to 204,253. German casualties were estimated to have between 437,000 to 680,000.

The military cemetery reflects the principles of the British memorials: names engraved on a stele or monument, uniform headstones and lack of any distinction between the dead, regardless of military rank, social status, or religion. The Cross of Sacrifice set on an octagonal base has at its centre a bronze broadsword, blade down. Finally, the Stone of Remembrance bears the inscription from the Book of Ecclesiastes: "Their name will live forever" (Their Name Liveth for Evermore).

Private Edward Kenny, S/5932, Argyle and Sutherland
Highlanders, who was killed on the Somme on 27th August 1916.
He was 24.

Edward Kenny's name on panel 15C of the memorial

Click on picture to see a larger image

Edward Kenny died towards the end of August, a month which was characterised by a campaign of attrition of pointless attacks and counter attacks which achieved no strategic or territorial advantage for either side but left thousand of irrecoverable bodies to be churned into the muddy morass of no man’s land. My wife’s great uncle, Private Edward Kenny, originally from Edenderry, Co. Offaly, Ireland had fallen with the 2nd. Bn. Argyle & Sutherland Highlanders, at the Somme on the 27th August 1916 and he’s commemorated on the “Monument to the Fallen” at Thiepval on the D73 road between Baupaume and Albert. This monument is for soldiers who fell at the Somme who have no known grave or were not identified. His name is inscribed on panel 15C.

Missing of the Somme

For many years all that greeted visitors to Thiepval was the 150-foot marble and brick memorial with the names of the fallen. Now an educational centre has been built with the support of British charities and the Conseil Général of the Département of the Somme. Over 160,000 people visit the site annually and the centre has a permanent exhibition explaining the history of the battle, a gift shop and improved parking and restrooms. Almost 90% of those commemorated on the memorial died between July and November 1916. They include the composer George Butterworth whose music is played as a background in the Visitor Centre. On the 1st July 2011 the 95th Anniversary of the Battle of the Somme was commemorated with the ceremony depicted in the photos.

Thiepval Visitor Centre

The centre is run by The Museum of the First World War (l'Historial de la Grande Guerre ) which is set in a wonderful building incorporating the Château at Péronne and houses the archives, artefacts and numerous exhibitions (including changing exhibitions) on aspects of WW1 and its battles. If visiting Thiepval the museum is only 26 km (35 minutes away by road) and is well worth visiting.



Historial de la Grande Guerre
Château de Péronne
BP 20063
80201 PERONNE cedex
Tél : (+33) 3 22 83 14 18

http://en.historial.org/Practical-information



Thiepval Visitor Centre

http://en.historial.org/content/view/full/21162

They shall grow not old,
As those that are left grow old,
Age shall not weary them,
Nor the years condemn,
At the going down of the sun, and in the morning,
We will remember them

For my perspective on a trip to the battlefields and the traumatic effect of The Great War on Ireland see;

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2007/11/towards-somme-personal-journey.html



Royal Irish Rangers play Killaloe at Thiepval Memorial in France. Filmed on 1st July 2006, the 90th Anniversary of the Battle of the Somme